


Take my hand, let’s see where we end up tomorrow.

by porter



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: All The Tropes, Angst, F/F, Fake Marriage, Fix-It, Mutual Pining, New York City, Unrequited Love, set after 2x11
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-09
Updated: 2015-04-06
Packaged: 2018-03-17 02:28:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3511832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/porter/pseuds/porter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after the events of 2x11. Jemma and Skye are still at odds after the fallout from San Juan, but are forced to go undercover for a mission within Stark Industries. As a married couple.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Please see me reaching out for someone I can't see.

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo I suck at summaries. This is my first ao3 fic, and you can also find it on my tumblr http://www.where-arethewolves.tumblr.com. The titles for this fic and for each of the chapters are from the song Lost Stars from the Begin Again soundtrack.

This entire shebang starts rather innocuously; Jemma has to admit on reflection. It was a perfectly ordinary Tuesday, or what counted for ordinary in the remains of SHIELD following the collapse of SHIELD and Agent, sorry, Director Coulson taking over the remnants. Which to Jemma’s knowledge consisted of less than 50 people worldwide. So she’s a little surprised when Coulson calls her into his office from the backlog of samples, alien or otherwise, that have accumulated on her desk during her extended stay at HYDRA. 

She’s also surprised to see Skye in the hallway outside of Coulson’s office. For the most part, the younger agent has been running field missions with May, or stuck in the computer labs trying to reassemble SHIELD’s databases. Jemma can honestly count on one hand how many times she’s seen Skye outside of work-related situations in the last month, which granted that they live in the same building, is quite impressive. It wasn’t like the old days on the Bus, before everything went to shit, before they knew about Ward, before every word out of Fitz’s mouth had to be carefully calculated, before there was this giant wall between every member of the original team, built out of the ruins of SHIELD and sealed with the blood of everyone they’d lost. 

Losing Trip had honestly been the most painful thing she’d experienced in her life. It hurt more than the last gasp of breath burning in her lungs as she dragged Fitz towards the surface of the ocean. It hurt more than leaping on that grenade on the train in Italy, even though she’d felt the effects of the tetrodotoxin in her blood stream for days afterwards. It hurt more than Skye dying in her arms, two bullet wounds to the gut, bleeding out over the floor of the basement. She’d swore in that moment nothing could possibly hurt more than that, but let the record state that it turns out Jemma Simmons can be wrong (sometimes, not very often though). But standing in the corridor with Skye, in that moment, with the distance between the two agents stretching out into oblivion even though they were mere meters apart, that was agony too. And honestly, Jemma was tired of hurting.  
“Do you know why the Director’s calling us in?” She asked Skye after a minute or two. Coulson was vaguely visible through the glass of his office, seemingly yelling at someone down a phone.  
Skye shifted uncomfortably, keeping her eyes focused on the silhouette behind the glass. The whole “incident” with Skye and her recently discovered Inhuman DNA was probably mostly to blame for the awkwardness between them. To be fair, Jemma had been convinced that Skye was infected with an alien virus; similar to the Chitauri helmet they’d discovered back when the team had started working together. Skydiving without a parachute was an experience Jemma hoped never to have to go through again, let alone loosing another friend to something otherworldly. So she may have overreacted with a little too much vigor for exterminating the virus, which would have been perfectly fine if it was a virus. Instead she had a team that was barely talking to her, a best friend who wouldn’t look her in the eyes, and a certain ex-hactivist who thought she might secretly have plans to dissect her. Which she didn’t. Absolutely no dissecting Skye in Jemma’s future plans. No siree.  
“I think it had something to do with the plans we recovered courtesy of Agent 13,” Skye finally replied, her gaze flicking over Jemma’s face and focusing on a spot just beside her left ear. “There was evidence that Hydra was planning on infiltrating Stark’s Tower to gain access to the Avengers. I don’t know what DC has planned though, I seem to be a little out of the loop these days.”  
The “because of you” goes unspoken between the two. Skye’s new powers were an issue of contention between the Director and Skye, with Coulson wanting to call in the Avengers to help Skye manage the transition. Skye however, was stubbornly resisting the plan, insisting she could learn to manage it on her own.  
The pair lapsed into silence, the only noise coming from beyond the Director’s door. It sounded like Coulson was slamming the phone repeatedly on the desk, which given the number of calls he was now fielding about unexpected earthquakes in the vicinity of the base was not uncalled for.  
Eventually the door opened and a slightly ruffled Coulson stepped out into the hallway. “Ah Skye, Jemma,” he nodded to both of them, “come in, I have a mission I need to discuss with you.”  
Jemma started forward into the office, Skye deliberately a few paces behind her. Even that was the closest they’d been in probably a month. It was quite disheartening to realize the extent of the gap between her and the woman she’d had a slight crush on since the day she was dragged, bag over her head into the interrogation room.  
“So as you know, we’ve recently received some intelligence from Agent 13 from within the CIA,” Coulson begins, his tone shifting to what Jemma likes to call his Super Serious Agent voice. “It appears that Hydra are trying to infiltrate Stark Tower. After all, Tony Stark is intent on privatizing world peace. However, Stark’s tech is the best in the world. The only chance Hydra has to infiltrate it would be with a mole inside Stark Industries. We’ve been searching through the employee records, and we’ve found three possible Hydra agents. Fortunately for us, Stark offers all his new employees residences in New York for the first six months after they transfer; so all three targets are staying in the same building. We need a two-agent team to go undercover as new Stark Industries employees to keep an eye on these three, sort through their personal belongings, make sure they aren’t supplying information to Hydra.”  
He paused for a minute, looking at the two agents sitting next to each other awkwardly. “We need you two to go in. Skye, your experience with computers means you should have no problem fitting the profile of a Stark employee. And with your scientist wife by your side, you and Jemma should make quite a power-couple.”  
Jemma sat there, completely dumbfounded by the mission parameters Coulson had just outlined. Married??! To Skye??! It sounded ridiculous. They could barely stand to be in the same room as each other at the moment, let alone been in a fake relationship.  
She glanced over to Skye, whose face was switching between looking like she wanted to puke and outright anger. Her mouth was open, and just when Jemma was certain Skye was about to unleash a verbal barrage, Coulson held up a finger.  
“Look, I know things haven’t been fantastic between the two of you at the moment, but we need you to do this. Jemma, I’ve arranged with you to meet with Dr. Bruce Banner while you’re there. You’ll be working under him for the couple of weeks you’re in there, and since he’s the foremost expert in gamma radiation in the world, we need his expertise on Hydra’s new gamma weaponry. Skye, I hate to do this but I need you in Stark’s servers. I quite honestly don’t trust the man not to do something stupid, like create an army of robots powered by artificial intelligence. The only reason we’ve been able to sneak you in like this is because Maria Hill owes me a favor and I’m collecting big time. I need you two to complete this mission to the best of your abilities, and if that means you have to pretend to be married for a few weeks, by god you better be the best fake married couple I’ve ever seen!” Coulson finishes, his face flushed slightly pink from almost yelling at the two of them.  
Jemma and Skye nod together, neither one of them quite willing to bring the wrath of the overwrought Director upon them.  
“But Sir, why married?” Jemma asks tentatively. “I understand the need to infiltrate SI, but do we really need to be married?”  
“The easiest way for Maria to convince Stark to employ both of you was to tell him you were married, and refused to work apart. Apparently Stark has a weakness for romance. It was the only way to guarantee you’d both end up in New York, and not shipped off to the plant in Iowa.” Coulson explained. “Honestly, I think it’s a little over the top, but that’s Maria for you. She loves fake marriages for some reason. Now get out of my office, report to May, she’ll go over your cover stories with you and drop you off in New York. You start at SI on Monday.”  
//  
Skye marched out of DC’s office without waiting to see if Jemma was coming. Simmons, not Jemma. She’d lost first name privileges when she’d tried to knock Skye out with a crowbar. Granted she understood Simmons’s reasoning for doing so, alien viruses weren’t to be trifled with, but it still hurt to remember the look on the other girls face as she lifted the crowbar above her head. A lifetime ago, back when she’d first come on the bus, she’d been slightly enamored with the older agent, who somehow had impeccable dress skills and knowledge of science things, but absolutely no common sense when it came to real life. Or as close to real life as getting shot at on a regular basis can be. Now all she can think of is Fitz, shooting Simmons in the back with an ICER to stop the decent of the crowbar, the look on Simmons face in the few seconds it took her to pass out. And now she’s walking down a corridor to receive instructions on how to pretend to be Simmons wife. Fuck this shit, she thought to herself as Simmons finally caught up to her, walking slightly behind her left shoulder. Fuck this shit.

May was waiting for them in the operations room, two suitcases already next to her, along with a few boxes marked kitchen, bedroom, and living room. Skye felt her heart rate elevate as she caught sight of those seemingly innocuous items. Oh shit, she was going to be fake married to Simmons, she was probably going to have to sleep in the same bed as Simmons, she was probably going to have to wear a…  
Just as that train of thought was entering her head, May reached down and pulled out two sets of wedding rings, the diamonds clearly visible. Skye swallowed deeply, willing her pulse to stop racing. After all, she’d shot someone without breaking 60 beats per minute. She could put on one tiny ring without hyperventilating, right?  
Beside her, Simmons stepped forward to take one set of rings from May’s hand, slipping them casually on her left hand. May arched an eyebrow at Skye, as if daring her to do the same thing. Skye swallowed again before picking up the tiny pieces of metal. They slid onto her finger perfectly, as if they belonged there and in that moment Skye swore her heart was beeping at 300 beats again. She’d always dreamed of being married as a kid, of having her family of her own, of having a ring that promised that someone would always be coming back for her. She just never expected to be wearing that ring in these circumstances.  
//  
The plane ride to New York felt like it was taking forever. May had dropped them off at the local airport so they could arrive in New York via a commercial flight. A Stark Industries representative was meeting them at the airport to take them back to their new apartment. That was three hours ago and now Jemma was sitting next to Skye on the hard plastic chairs next to the departure gate, trying desperately to appear interested in the trashy celebrity magazine she’d bought at the newsagent (apparently middle America hadn’t heard of Science Weekly). Skye was listening to something on her iPod, the massive headphones a perfect deterrent from conversation. Not that they had anything to say to each other anyway. The rings on her finger felt awkward, and she couldn’t help herself from gazing at them on her hand every few minutes. Jemma shook her head slightly, refocusing on the thrilling saga of the evolution of Kim Kardashian’s butt. The sooner they got to New York, the better.  
//  
Skye’s avoidance technique of using her headphones to ignore Simmons only worked up until they had to board the plane and she couldn’t use electronic devices for the half an hour or so it took to get in the air. They’d been booked in economy, with Simmons sitting in the window seat and a 6’4” built guy sitting in the isle. Skye was starting to feel like a sardine, and the flight hadn’t even taken off yet. Sighing in frustration, she turned to Simmons. They had less than three hours to transform from awkward silence to a believable married couple, and Skye didn’t like their chances. But DC was counting on them, so Skye was willing to attempt to move on from the Crowbar Incident, as long as Simmons was.  
“So we should probably go over our covers,” she blurted towards Simmons, leaning more towards the other girl to make it harder for the guy next to them to overhear.  
Simmons looked up from her magazine (as if she actually cared about any of the “celebrities” in that piece of trash), a look of surprise on her face. Considering those were the first words Skye had said directly to her in over a month, Skye would be surprised too. “Yes, preparation always helps,” Simmons finally replied, a slight smile transforming her entire face. “Wouldn’t want to shoot anyone again, would I?”  
“Well since the first person you shot turned out to be a Hydra agent, and the second was Raina, I think you’re having a pretty good run with shooting people, but no, shooting people on our undercover mission isn’t a great idea.”  
They both lapsed back into silence for a few seconds, unused to actually talking like they used to.  
“Well the cover is pretty simple. I’m still Jemma Simmons, only I left SHIELD in 2010 to start with Hammer Technology. Since Stark hates Hammer, he was all too happy to recruit one of his best biotechnologists to work for him. We met in 2010, just after I left SHIELD, and we got married in October 2013.” Jemma stated after skimming the dossiers May had given them.  
“And I’m Skye Simmons, because apparently I took your last name. I’ve been working at mainly small start-up IT companies setting up networks, and I met you after I fixed your laptop because you spilled a bottle of beer over it and fried the main circuit board. The last place that hired me was so impressed with the firewall I set up for them that the computer department at Stark was interested in hiring me. Since we would only work together, we were officially recruited last month and we start work in approximately 48 hours.” Skye finished after reading through her section.  
“Mmm, I have to admit I’m quite excited to meet Bruce Banner in person,” Simmons remarked while reading through the science side of the briefing packet.  
“Oh yeah, the Hulk right? I might have borrowed Coulson’s dossiers on the Avengers once or twice…” Skye muttered after she realized that she’d basically admitted stealing the Director’s personal files.  
Simmons was sitting there, looking like she’s trying really hard not to laugh. Instead she turned and said, “Do you think we should start pretending to act like a married couple? I mean we only have two hours until we need to do this for real…”  
Skye took another deep breath as her heart rate started to climb again. She definitely didn’t want to cause another quake at this altitude. “Yeah, we should probably start holding hands or something. That’s if you’re okay with taking the risk that my alien DNA might infect you,” she quipped, turning around to face the isle so she doesn’t have to see the look of hurt that crosses Jemma’s, no Simmons’s (it’s Simmons okay) face. Without looking back at the other girl, she shoves her hand roughly in the general direction of their mutual armrest (where Simmons had was just seconds before). She grabs Simmons hand, the feel of the wedding rings currently on Simmons left hand strange and foreign. They hadn’t really held hands before, well before the mess that the underground city had made them, but even still the rings feel out of place, their palms both a little to sweaty to be natural. And in that moment Skye knows that she was in love with the tiny scientist sitting next to her, at least for a little while before all the craziness began. And boy, had they both blown it.


	2. Searching for Meaning

The rest of the flight passes in awkward silence, yet their hands remain pressed together the entire time, neither one of them quite ready to let go. Jemma can’t quite bring herself to look at Skye, the accusation from before seared into her brain. Of course Skye has every reason to be distrustful of her, but hearing it straight from the other girls mouth, instead of through this passive-aggressive limbo of non-communication hurts even more. 

She remembers every moment of it, the entire building shaking even though that shouldn’t have been physically perfect, the chunks of ceiling falling down, and somehow in the middle of all the chaos Skye, standing there with the sky falling down all around her, tears streaming from her cheeks as she screamed. She remembers grabbing the crowbar from where Mac must’ve left it in the lounge room, and heading towards Skye, the most recent DNA results confirming her worst fears, that the women she thought she was falling in love with was infected with a virus she didn’t know how to cure. Her only thought was if she could get Skye back to the containment pod, she could buy herself enough time to make an antidote for the virus. The first blow only knocked Skye to her knees though and she remembers standing there, looking straight into Skye’s eyes and she brought the crowbar down, the feeling of ice spreading down her spine as she realized she must’ve been shot with an ICER. The look of horror in Skye’s eyes as Jemma fell towards the ground, the feeling of arms around her as she finally lost consciousness. 

It’s a reoccurring nightmare Jemma has, almost every night, which is why she’s less than impressed to see the modern sofa in the living room (pretty much impractical for sitting on, let alone sleeping on for an extended period of time), and the one bedroom in the apartment provided by Stark Industries. With the one bed. With the one, quite small, double bed. This was not going to end well. 

//

Skye turned a critical eye around the living room of their new apartment. Granted it was in New York, so living space was an absolute premium, but the apartment didn’t feel that small, just cozy. Like the perfect amount of space for two people in a loving relationship. For two people in a decidedly non-loving verging on dysfunctional relationship, it was a total disaster.   
Right down to the double bed sitting pride and place in the middle of their new bedroom. Yep, total disaster.   
Simmons is lurking in the kitchen, trying hard to contain her look of dismay. Skye tried not to take offence, going from barely talking to someone to residing in the same bed in less than 6 hours was a lot to take in.   
They fake small talk through Chinese takeout, even splitting the last egg roll to make sure everything is perfectly divided. There’s a slight kerfuffle over the bathroom, with Simmons going in first and appearing 15 minutes later, the mirror fogged up from the steam and her hair wrapped in a towel, wearing a set of matching pajamas with chemical structures on them (a gift from Fitz last Christmas). Skye slips into the bathroom, grateful that at least one door in this apartment has a lock that can separate her from Simmons, even temporarily. She takes her time, trying to delay the inevitable moment where she’ll have to climb in bed next to Simmons. But eventually she’s flushed out of the shower by a lack of hot water, and has to slip into the covers next to an already sleeping (or at least pretending to be asleep) Simmons. The bed is already slightly warm from the body heat coming off the tiny scientist, and Skye lets herself relax into the unknown pillow. Taking a few deep breaths, she closed her eyes and willed sleep to overtake her.   
Skye is disorientated when she wakes a few hours later, the combination of the foreign bed and body against her freaking her out slightly. After a few seconds, she realized that she was woken by the noise coming from Simmons next to her. Simmons is lying totally straight, facing the ceiling, but she appears to be hyperventilating, with occasional gasps slipping from her lips. She’s shaking, her entire body quivering and Skye doesn’t know what to do. It’s obvious that Simmons is having a nightmare, but she remembers reading somewhere that it’s a bad idea to wake someone up suddenly from a nightmare. Or was that sleepwalking? Either way, she hesitates before reaching out and gently grabbing Simmons hand.  
“Jemma,” she whispers, “Jemma, it’s me. You need to wake up, okay? She continues to whisper this until the other girls breathing starts to even out, her face smoothing as the wrinkles around the edges of her eyes and between her forehead disappear. Skye can’t remember having ever seen those before, and she feels a sharp pang of guilt as she realizes she may be at least partially responsible for them. Skye watches her for a few more minutes, reluctant to wake Jemma up now that the nightmare seems to have passed. After all, they had just over 24 hours before they both had to infiltrate one of the world’s biggest companies owned by a real live superhero. She needed the sleep.   
//

The next day passed quickly, as both girls took the opportunity to flee the small confines of their apartment into New York City. The apartment was conveniently located in Midtown, with the towering structure of the newly renamed Avengers Tower within walking range.   
Jemma was relieved to be free of Skye, even just for a few hours as she browsed the stores along Fifth Avenue. It was almost surreal to be walking among the thousands of people strolling around the streets of New York, even when the city had basically been demolished less than two years previously. Walking past the shopping district, she found herself in Central Park, a sign pointing in the direction of the zoo too tempting to pass. Jemma had always loved going to the zoo as a child, learning the genus and species of all of the animals, and memorizing facts about all of the different creatures. After an hour or so of wondering around the zoo, she found herself sitting in front of the snow monkey exhibit, trying hard not to think about how excited Fitz would be over the (quite frankly) ugly creatures on the other side of the plexiglass.   
She’d been pleasantly surprised this morning to wake up around 6am, instead of the middle of the night like she’d been doing for the last month. She’d woken up slightly before Skye, taking the opportunity to study the sleeping agent as she slumbered on unaware. Skye looked so much younger in the early morning light, reminding Jemma of just how young she actually was. After all, most 25 year olds were concerned with paying back student loans, not discovering that they had alien heritage that manifested itself through developing strange powers. Jemma allowed herself to relax again, slowly drifting back to sleep with the rhythmic sound of Skye’s breathing. She honestly couldn’t remember the last time she’d slept in, but something about being here, in this bed with Skye lying next to her (not quite touching, but close) convinced her to close her eyes and fall back into a dreamless sleep.   
//  
Skye had woken that morning to an unfamiliar weight on her arm. It appeared that Jemma had rolled over sometime during the night, and somehow now had her head nestled in the crook of Skye’s elbow. Skye lay there for a few minutes, not wanting to disturb the other girl from her sleep, but gradually feeling her arm grow numbed from the unexpected weight. Eventually, she gently moved Jemma’s head from her arm, placing it gently back onto the pillow next to her. Slipping from the bed, she headed into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. It was going to be a long day.   
She wasn’t completely surprised when Jemma brushes past her a little while later, spinning a story about wanting to explore the city for a bit, and she almost sighs in relief when the door shuts behind Jemma. The switch from hostility to domesticality in less than 24 hours was playing havoc with her self-control, and the last thing New York needed was another disaster so close on the heels of the Chituari attack.   
Picking a direction at random, she headed off into the hustle of New York. It wasn’t her first time in the city, she’d spent almost two years here living in her van, taking odd jobs here and there until she’d headed to California, the promise of a job with the Rising Tide too good to resist. Thankfully, that was before the sky opened and rained down death on the city, and she had spent most of the attack staring with wide-eyed disbelief at her television screen.   
Skye wondered for a while, before she spotted a familiar sign for the Central Park Zoo. She’d been there a few times while living in the city, taking time out just to sit and watch the animals. Okay, she went there to watch the penguins mostly (they were too damn cute) and forget about the fact she was 21, unemployed and residing in the back of the world’s most unreliable van. She wondered around the zoo for a while, staying at the penguin exhibit for almost half an hour watching them swim around the giant tank, before the smell got to her. She was just walking past the snow monkey exhibit (to take a few pictures for Fitz, he always seemed to cheer up when you showed him pictures of monkeys), when she saw a familiar person sitting on a bench, staring at the exhibit. Silently, Skye slipped around the crowds of tourists (ha, super spy training really did pay off) and slid onto the bench next to Jemma, reaching over to grab a handful of nuts out of the bag the other girl was holding. She couldn’t help burst out laughing at the look of shock on the other agents face when Jemma realized that it was Skye, not some some random person, stealing her peanuts.   
“So, fancy seeing you here,” she started while shelling the peanuts in her hand. It was hard not to laugh again at the indignant look on Jemma’s face as she shoved the handful of nuts into her mouth, deliberately chewing as loudly as possible.  
“Yes well, if I realized I already had a monkey back at home I could’ve saved myself the admission fee,” Jemma finally replied, her eyes narrowing into what Skye liked to call her Evil Scientific Genius face.   
“Oh you did not just go there,” Skye laughed back.  
“Oh I went there, thank you very much. Those peanuts cost a bloody fortune!”  
Skye just replies by giving Jemma her best smile, the one she normally reserves for flirting or stirring people up, and popping another peanut in her mouth. It feels good to be sitting there, months of awkwardness almost erased by a simple joke. Reaching over, she grabs Jemma’s hand again, still unused to the feel of the rings on the other girls hand. “Well what type of wife would I be if I let my significant other roam the wild streets of New York City by herself?”   
Jemma just replies by shoving a handful of the shells left from the peanuts onto Skye’s head, giggling at the look on Skye’s face when she realizes it’s all through her hair.  
“Oh it is so on, my dear wife!” Skye exclaimed as the two of them started chucking peanut shells at each other, somehow not letting go of each other’s hand.


	3. if we're not careful turns into reality

Stark Industries, Jemma has to admit, is the most intimidating building she’s ever walked into. The entire foyer is steel chrome and glass, with what appears to be a giant aquarium of tropical fish off to the left hand side of the impressive entry desk. People whizz by, swiping through the turnstiles into the massive lobby behind the entry desk. Jemma and Skye both pause for a second, totally thrown off by the size and sheer level of activity happening on this level alone. Forcing their way through to the desk, they’re instructed by the rather bored looking secretary to wait for one of the security officers to take them through to HR. 

Their HR representative is a rather peculiar women whose nametag proudly states “Darcy Lewis, Human and Alien Relations”, and who bursts into a whirlwind of activity as she breezes through the office, grabbing a scary number of forms along the way while taking a mile a minute about what a cute couple they make. Jemma grips Skye’s hand even tighter as their herded into an office (which she presumes is actually Darcy’s, even though there’s a framed picture of Thor eating waffles on the desk). 

“So, we’ve got your standard NDA’s about the work you’ll be doing here at SI, a form stating that you’re not any sort of spy or agent for a secret government organization, Stark’s still a little prissy about his assistant turning out to be a SHIELD agent…” Skye and Jemma glance at each other in amusement on hearing that part. “We also have your medical plans, I’m assuming since your each others significant others we don’t have to worry about filling out forms for your partners. And finally, we have a disclaimer stating that you cannot sue Stark Industries for any incidents arising from your time here, including but not limited to attacks from deranged supervillans, Avenger-related incidents, alien technology and sex pollen. I’m pretty sure the last bit’s a joke.” Darcy adds after seeing the shocked looks on the two girl’s faces. 

“So do we at least get dental?” Skye quips, as Jemma sits there looking at the mountain of papers in front of them. 

Darcy throws back her head and laughs, “Oh, you and I are going to have so much fun with Stark. I can see it now.”

Approximately three hours later (okay it was closer to 20 minutes, but still) all of the appropriate paperwork had been filed with Darcy, and it was time for Jemma to head off to meet Dr. Banner on the 82nd floor, while Skye was heading down to the computing lab on the 68th. Conscious of the fact that Darcy was still watching them from inside her office, Jemma lent over, brushing her lips over Skye’s cheek, in what she hopes looks like a convincing thing a married couple would do. 

She’s slightly shocked when Skye responds by grabbing her shoulders, pulling her in for a kiss. She has barely a second to register what’s actually happening before Skye’s lips are on hers. She can taste the coffee on Skye’s mouth from breakfast this morning, mixed in with a hint of cherry lip gloss and it takes all of her control to break away from the kiss after a few seconds, to not pull Skye in and kiss her again and again and her brain seems to hate shorted out slightly. She’s saved by a cough from the doorway.

“So Dr. Banner’s lab is this way, I’ll show you how to find it. Skye, someone from IT should be along soon to show you to our computing lab.” Darcy starts walking towards the elevator, clipboard in hand, looking very much like a tiny but terrifying gladiator off to do battle. 

Jemma follows after her, somewhat still in shock from the recent turn of events. She can’t help but glance back to Skye as she follows Darcy towards the elevators, noticing the other agent is staring at her back intently. She raised her hand in a half wave just before being pulled into the elevator by Darcy, the doors closing before she could see Skye repeat the gesture.

//  
Fuck.

That’s literally the only thought going through Skye’s mind as she waits for whoever from IT is going to show her around.

Fuck.

She just kissed Jemma Simmons. The Jemma Simmons who she’s had a massive crush on for the last year and a half. The Jemma Simmons who tried to brain her with a crowbar when she thought Skye was infected with an alien virus that was going to destroy humanity.

Fuck.

Fortunately, Skye is pulled out of her loop of worrying by the sight of Tony Stark himself heading down the corridor. Judging from the shocked faces of her follow SI employees, this was not a normal occurrence. He stops outside of Darcy’s office, turning to face Skye.

“Mrs. Simmons, I presume?” 

It took Skye a second to remember that she was in fact actually Mrs. Simmons. It was the first time someone had actually said it out loud. For a second, she almost couldn’t breathe, the possibility of being married to Jemma, getting to spend every day of her life with her overwhelming her. She broke out of her stupor when Tony Freaking Stark clicked her fingers in front of Skye’s face.

“Yes, yes that’s me. Sorry, we’ve only been married for just over a year, sometimes the surname still throws me off a bit.” She fixes Tony with her best smile, hoping she could bluff her way out of the current situation.

It seems to work, as Tony turns and begins to walk back towards the elevators, talking a mile a minute. “Now, your resume is a little sketchy, Mrs. Simmons, however I saw that firewall you set up for Crab Technologies, terrible name for a company by the way, and it was a piece of beauty. It took me a whole 15 minutes to crack, which was about three minutes longer than it took me to get through the old SHIELD servers a few years back. Anyway, the reason I’m here is that I give all the new IT people a chance to crack Stark’s servers. I want to see what I’m working with, you feel?” He broke out of his monologue to fix Skye with a gaze that had her nodding furiously.

“Excellent, the rules are if you actually make it through, you get unlimited access to the Avengers levels of the tower. Since your wife is working with Bruce on one of them, I think you want that access. However, fair warning, no one has ever broken through the servers except for well, me. Are you ready to have a crack at it?”

He finished just as they walked in to a tech hub, every surface covered with state of the art computing technology. About half a dozen people were scattered around the room, each with their own station. The room was practically silent expect for the hum of the computers and the clicks of the keyboards. Skye was practically salivating as she took a seat at one of the vacant stations.

“Oh, hell yes,” she managed to reply to Tony before she immersed herself in the code.

//  
Jemma had been working with Dr. Banner in his lab for roughly three hours. The lab was one of the best she’d ever been in; everything set up precisely in the place Jemma would have put it. It was roomy, almost every lab Jemma had previously worked in had either been limited by size, or by the number of people working in there. In this lab, there were only five other people, including Dr. Banner, making it the ideal working environment for her experiments. 

Her current work was on mapping the epigenetic differences in Steve Rogers DNA, based on a sample of Steve’s blood taken before the procedure in 1943 and from a few days ago. The old sample was badly degraded, making it difficult to map a complete genome. Jemma was convinced she could do it, but given the scarcity of the samples Dr. Banner had asked for a detailed method before she was allowed to begin. 

So to say she’s surprised when Skye wanders into the lab just as her lunch break begins would be an understatement. Especially since Darcy and Dr. Banner had spent at least half an hour that morning explaining how restricted this lab was, as it was technically on the Avengers levels of the tower. 

Skye’s whistling slightly as she saunters towards Jemma, looking like she has every right to be standing there in this lab (even though Jemma’s positive she doesn’t. She drops down onto the spare chair at Jemma’s desk, reaching out and grabbing Jemma’s hand. She can see Dr. Banner from the side of her eye, frowning slightly, before Tony Stark himself walks into the lab, a rather dark expression on his face. He starts to head towards Dr. Banner, before catching sight of Skye and Jemma. Expression darkening (seriously Skye, why the fuck are you smirking right now) he heads towards the two of them. 

Jemma’s somewhat not surprised that Skye’s managed to piss off the head of the world’s biggest multinational corporation within three hours of arriving to work here, but she is a little impressed. 

“Ah, Dr. Simmons I assume,” Stark states as he reaches her desk. “Your wife here just managed to crack the Stark servers within two hours, and has somehow managed to reprogram my AI to speak with a Texan accent. Is there any way you can convince her to change it back?”

Jemma just blinks in surprise, glaring at Skye, who at this moment looks very much like the cat who got the cream. Tony Stark on the other hand looks like he’s had the entire pitcher of cream upended over his head. She’s saved from saying something when Skye butts in.

“Calm down there, Mr. Boss Man. I only changed JARVIS’s voice to ensure that you were giving me the correct directions to the lab. Knowing you, the directions you gave me initially could’ve taken me to Captain America’s bedroom or somewhere like that.” 

Jemma could’ve sworn that Tony Stark muttered “Black Widow’s bathroom” under his breath, but she’s too distracted by Skye picking up her hand and placing a kiss on her knuckles.

“Besides, I wanted to spend lunch with my wife here before we start redesigning your firewall networks. I have a few ideas about how to incorporate the network feed into the firewall parameters, you know, make sure no one can get through them.” 

She throws a wink at Tony Stark, which somehow manages to make his face go to quite a bright shade of red, almost crimson. Jemma was already trying to think of excuses to tell Coulson to explain how they managed to get fired on their first day at SI. Somehow she didn’t think pissed off Tony Stark so much he died of myocardial infarction would go down well. 

“I’ve just got one question, Mr. Boss Man,” Skye continues, seeming oblivious to Tony Stark’s oncoming aneurism. “Sex pollen, real or fake?”


	4. Best laid plans sometimes are just a one night stand

//

Somehow Skye manages to survive the next five hours or so. As much as she hates to admit it, working with Stark (and winding him up) was a lot more fun than she expected. Plus there was the bonus of pretty much redesigning the entirety of SI’s cyber security, which was one of the most challenging things she’s ever encountered. 

After a hard day at work, it’s almost a relief to meet Jemma in the lab again, practically pulling the tiny scientist away from the PCR machine. Once Jemma gets started on a project, there’s basically no stopping her, but Skye really needs to debrief. They still have a potential Hydra agent within SI, who could be potentially living within meters of their apartment.

They arrive back just after 6pm to their tiny apartment, which Skye is slightly terrified to realize she’s already thinking of as home. They order Thai food as they go over the files on the three possible agents Coulson had identified, together with all the intel Skye had managed to syphon off the SI databases. By digging through the data Stark had collated about his employees, they were able to narrow it down to two possible people; Johanna Smith, a weapons engineer formerly employed by SHIELD, but who disappeared during the fallout of the Triskelion disaster, and David Miller, a lawyer recently hired on to cope with the increased number of legal suits getting filed against the Avengers (mostly for property damage). 

Both had begun at SI within the last month, lived alone within the building Jemma and Skye were now residing in, and had gaps in their backgrounds that could be explained by a stint within Hydra. 

//

Jemma and Skye settle into a routine over the next week. They leave for SI together, careful always to be seen holding hands as they walk across the lobby to the elevators, exchanging a quick kiss before going their separate ways. Skye appears at 12pm every day in Dr. Banner’s lab, lunch in hand, and they eat together at Jemma’s desk. One day the Doctor joined them, exchanging small talk through a mildly uncomfortable hour. Tony Stark was known to drop by at random times too, normally when Skye was there so he could glare at her for a bit. It seemed he hadn’t quite forgiven her from changing his AI’s voice to that awful Texan accent. It was worse than Hunter’s fake American accent, if Jemma was being honest. 

They normally left the building at slightly different times; Skye slightly early to check on the surveillance equipment set up in Smith and Miller’s apartments, and Jemma normally staying back to quiz Dr. Banner about science related matters. Normally Skye orders takeout, and is watching some sitcom on TV when Jemma finally gets back to their apartment.

So she’s a little surprised that night when she gets back to find Skye, dressed in leggings and an oversized t-shirt, dancing around their kitchen. Music was coming full bore from the stereo, blasting some song she didn’t recognize. She decides to wait for the song to end before she interrupts, tapping Skye on the shoulder as the last few bars of the song play. 

Skye’s face lights up with a smile and for a second Jemma can forget about the last few months, how hard its been to come to terms with Skye’s new powers, she can forget how the girl who she’s slowly falling in love with still resents her for her actions. The next song starts and Skye’s smile gets even wider. She grabs Jemma’s hands just as the upbeat melody kicks in, pulling her close.

Skye opens her mouth and starts singing along to the music.

“Oh don't you dare look back, just keep your eyes on me”

Jemma can feel her breathing speed up to match her increased heart rate. Skye starts to move her hips back and forth, still mouthing the lyrics.  
“I said, "You're holding back,” she said, "Shut up and dance with me!" This woman is my destiny, she said, "Oh, oh, oh, shut up and dance with me!”

Jemma forces her feet to move slightly in time with the music. She pretty much doesn’t hear the first verse at all, too focused on Skye dancing around the kitchen, pulling Jemma along with her. 

The chorus starts again and Skye spins her around. Jemma wasn’t expecting it and ends up tripping slightly, landing pretty much in Skye’s arms. They end up in a waltz position, chest to chest, and suddenly Jemma can’t breathe at all. Skye’s still mouthing the lyrics as she begins to twirl again, pulling Jemma along again. They continue to dance like this for a while, wrapped up in the music and each other. 

“Deep in her eyes, I think I see the future. I realize this is my last chance.”

Jemma stares into Skye’s eyes as she listens to the lyrics. Skye’s staring straight back into hers, and undecipherable look in her eyes. Jemma decides in that moment that she should kiss Skye, at least once. She’d already blown their chance of a future together to hell anyway, this couldn’t hurt at all.

She grabs the back of Skye’s head with one hand, pulling the other girl even closer. She hesitates for a second, giving Skye plenty of time to pull out of the embrace. Just as the music tells her to “shut up and dance” again, she moves forward those extra few inches, and her lips are on Skye’s and oh wow. It’s like kissing electricity; she can feel it throughout her entire body. Skye’s lips are so soft, she can taste her cherry lip balm. Skye’s lips open slightly and Jemma takes full advantage, slipping her tongue into the other girl’s mouth. It’s the most wonderful sensation, and Jemma wishes it never had to stop. Skye’s hands are in her hair, pulling her in even closer. She groans into Jemma’s mouth and holy fuck, it’s perfection. 

Somewhere in the background, the music finally ends, and the next song begins. Death metal starts blaring out of the speakers and they spring apart, caught out by the sudden change in the mood. 

Jemma’s panting slightly, and it looks like Skye is too. Skye reaches over and grabs the remote, switching the music off. 

They stand in silence for a minute, before Jemma realizes she really should say something. 

“Skye…” she starts, but she’s cut off as Skye grabs her keys off the bench, heading out the front door of their apartment. 

“Fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song referenced in the text is Shut Up and Dance by Walk the Moon. I recommend listening to it while reading the last part!


	5. I thought I heard you call my name

Skye was in shock. Absolute pure shock. Of all the things in life she’d expected, getting kissed by Jemma Simmons wasn’t even on the list. 

It was like kissing electricity, a 1000 watts of power running through her veins. For a minute, she’d been able to tune out the background hum of her powers, always just below the surface of her skin like a horde of angry bees trying to break free. Even now, her powers feel more in control, less aggressive, probably because the only thing she could think about was Jemma.

Fuck it.

Turning around, Skye marched back along the corridor to the apartment, opening the door with a bang. Jemma was still standing in the exact same spot she’d been in as Skye had stormed out of the apartment. “Skye…” she began, but she was cut off as Skye stormed forward, grabbing ahold of Jemma and pulling her in for another kiss. 

And wow, somehow kissing Jemma is better the second time around. Maybe because she was actually expecting it this time, maybe because somehow Jemma has her hands in Skye’s hair, pulling her closer and closer till there’s absolutely no space between them.

It’s more charged, and Skye swears she can feel the electricity flowing through her veins. Her powers are still there, and she feels like she could lift mountains with the amount of energy her and Jemma are generating. 

Jemma groans into Skye’s mouth, sending shivers through her spine. Skye’s vaguely aware they should stop this before it goes any further (namely towards the bedroom that’s only three feet away from them), but at the same time she doesn’t care. 

“Skye…” Jemma was trying to say something, so Skye reluctantly pulls back (slightly). Jemma’s pupils are massively dilated, and Skye can feel her pulse racing under her fingers. The other woman’s hair is a mess, and Skye knows she must look the same. 

“We really need to talk,” Jemma finally gets out, pulling herself out of Skye’s arms. “Before this goes any further, I need you to talk to me about us. Because this isn’t a one time thing for me, Skye. I’ve honestly been falling in love with you since the moment you walked on the Bus. And I know I haven’t handled the past few months very well, but it hasn’t changed how I felt about you. So if this is just a phase for you, or a passing fancy, please just go.”

There are tears in Jemma’s eyes and Skye’s mind is going haywire with the possibilities. Jemma loves her. Jemma wants a future together. It’s everything Skye’s wanted since she saw Jemma jump off the Bus almost a year ago, when she realized just how much of a crush she had on the tiny scientist. 

And it boils down to four little words.

“I love you, Jemma.”

There are tears are flowing down Jemma’s cheeks, even though she’s smiling. Skye does the only thing she can think of, stepping forward again and pulling Jemma in for another kiss. 

And another.

And another.

//

Jemma honestly can’t remember the last time she woke up feeling happy. When she was undercover at Hydra, she’d forced herself into a regime. Wake up with a smile on her face; keep it there no matter what. Pretending to be happy had become so routine she’d forgotten what the actual emotion felt like. Then there was the added weight of Trip’s death, of Fitz’s distrust and Skye’s powers. So she kept on smiling, even if it felt like she was being crushed under the weight of her unhappiness.

But this morning, for the first time in almost a year, she woke with a genuine smile on her face. The reason she was so happy was sprawled on the bed next to her, one arm curled possessively across Jemma’s abdomen. Skye’s head was tucked into the crook of Jemma’s neck, her breath warm against Jemma’s skin as she breathed in and out, still deeply asleep. 

They were both still completely naked, a sheet haphazardly chucked over them at some point during the night. Jemma blushed slightly as the memories from last night came back, tucking her own head forward slightly to press a kiss to the top of Skye’s head. 

Their alarm hadn’t gone off yet, but they’d need to get up soon to get to Stark Industries. Jemma had learned quite a lot from Dr. Banner, and she felt bad about the deception she’d had to use to finally meet the other scientist. It felt wrong, infiltrating the Avengers to further SHIELD’s knowledge, but at the same time Jemma knew it was necessary. After all, they’d found out that part of the human population was a genetic experiment by the Kree, with the potential to possibly destroy the world with their powers.

Jemma knew Skye couldn’t fully control her powers yet. There were moments when she noticed things shaking slightly, normally when Skye was agitated. At the same time, Jemma was sure she was the last person Skye would want to talk to about her powers. 

The alarm went off, disturbing Jemma’s chain of thoughts. Skye rolled over, eyes still closed, whacking the snooze button rather harshly, before rolling back to Jemma again.

“Hey,” Skye started, words still thick with sleep. “Good morning.” She finally opened her eyes and smiled up at Jemma. 

“Morning,” Jemma whispered back. Skye pushed herself up onto her forearms, putting one arm either side of Jemma so their faces were only inches apart. Jemma was keenly aware of how naked they both were, with the sheet doing absolutely nothing to cover Skye’s body in their new position.

Leaning forward, Skye captured Jemma’s lips in a kiss. Jemma was so far gone she barely even registered their combined morning breath before returning the kiss. It was slow and languid, the opposite of last night, yet somehow perfect. She could get used to waking up like this.

The alarm starts beeping again and Skye pulls herself off Jemma with a groan of pure disappointment. Jemma giggles slightly at the grumpy expression on Skye’s face as she finally gets out of bed.

“You know, we could always shower together to save time,” she calls over her shoulder as she walks into the bathroom. She hears a crash that sounds distinctly like Skye falling out of bed, before she’s swept up from behind in a crushing hug. 

She laughs again as Skye pulls her forward into the shower. After all, they still have a bit of time before they need to get to work…

//

Skye dips her head slightly as she walks into the computer lab, a whole hour after she was meant to be there. Sliding into her desk, she hopes Stark wasn’t around this morning to notice her absence. She wasn’t quite sure when that man actually slept, but judging by the strange times he dropped by the lab it wasn’t regularly. 

She’d just settled in to writing a block of code when she feels someone enter her personal space. One advantage of her new powers is that she can feel people coming and going, making it difficult for anyone to sneak up on her. Let alone Tony Stark, who seems incapable of moving without making some type of noise, even when he’s trying to be sneaky. Like now.

“So, running a bit late this morning?” He asks from about three inches away from her ear. Skye winces slightly. She’d hoped to avoid this conversation. Swiveling around on her chair, Skye turns to face her (fake) boss.

“Overslept. Forgot to set the alarm.”

Tony arches an eyebrow at her. “Tricky things those clocks. Try setting two next time.” He smirked again as he walked towards the door. “By the way, I’ve left your next assignment on your desktop. I need you to try and crack this network for me. The sooner the better.” 

Skye nods before turning to look at the information Stark had left her. 

Fuck.

Skye knew exactly how to hack into that particular network. In fact, it was one she’d designed herself. Tony Stark wanted her to crack open SHIELD for him. This wasn’t going to end well.


End file.
